High-school swimming: Granville relay team's record still resonates

Keely Lovern, Kassandra Mestemaker, Abby Stone and Sydney King know the ending by heart, but the Granville swimmers have played the DVD over and over in the past 12 months.

Mark Znidar, The Columbus Dispatch

Keely Lovern, Kassandra Mestemaker, Abby Stone and Sydney King know the ending by heart, but the Granville swimmers have played the DVD over and over in the past 12 months.

Goose pimples still abound.

In the Division II state meet last February, the quartet timed 1 minute, 44.22 seconds to set a record in the 200-yard medley relay at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton. They blew away the previous mark by set by Gates Mills Hawken the previous year by 0.54 of a second. Runner-up Dayton Oakwood was almost three seconds back.

“We’ve watched that video so much,” King said. “In the background, you can hear the announcer saying that it was a state record. That was so exciting to be a part of something like that.”

The Blue Aces will be the heavy favorite in the district meet in the 200 medley relay today at Ohio State’s McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion and to return to Canton. The relay might be the most difficult event to win because it is made up of four 50-yard legs and different strokes — the backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle — in that order.

“The biggest thing for our 200 medley relay is that each swimmer trusts that the other three are going to do their jobs,” Granville coach John Sands said. “They know each will finish hard. They go into the water on the edge. This is a veteran group. There is a lot of work that goes into it.”

This season, the Blue Aces have the fastest time in Division I and II at 1:46.05. Lovern swims the backstroke, Mestemaker the breaststroke, Stone the butterfly and King the freestyle.

“There is no instant gratification here,” said Sands, who set the boys state 50-yard freestyle record swimming for Granville in 2004. “Swimming fast can be drudgery. It’s not all that fun. They have put in a lot of work.”

Sands and the girls said there is no complicated formula to swimming the 200 medley relay other than being fast and having great camaraderie.

It’s up to Lovern to get Granville started.

“Oh, I do get nervous and I do get focused,” Lovern said. “But I’ve been doing relays since I was a little kid. Swimming can be so individual, but relays are about sharing.”

Before Lovern steps on to the starting block, the four huddle and shout, “Granville does not lose.”

“The great thing with us is that there is no drama in or out of the pool,” Lovern said. “We always have a group message. We’ll watch video of our races and talk about what we have to do.”

Mestemaker, Stone and King will stand 1 to 1½ feet behind the edge of the block so they don’t leap into the water before a swimmer touches the wall.

There is a judge watching each lane to make sure no one leaves early. The penalty is disqualification.

“You want to get off that block as fast as possible so you don’t waste time,” Mestemaker said. “ The judges are meticulous, but I don’t worry about leaving too early. I’ve been doing this for 12 years. We practice so much. I’m ready to go with every fiber in my body.”

Mestemaker said competing in an important meet is similar to taking the ACT and SAT.

“Yes, it is loud — people are screaming — but I don’t worry about anything except my swim,” she said. “You block everything out.”

Stone, who is the only junior among seniors, thought the 200 medley relay team had possibilities after it won the high-profile Northeast Classic in Branin in January 2013.

“We swam really well and saw that we were within two seconds of the state record,” Stone said. “ We said, ‘We know we can swim faster than this.’ We’re a confident group because we know we don’t have a weak link.”

The swimming season is an eternity. The girls practice with their club and high schools. There are trips for important invitational meets.

“But we never get sick of one another,” King said. “We’ve known each other since we were 11. I remember hitting the wall in the state meet last year. I looked into the stands at my parents. They were having a heart attack. Then I looked up to my friends. I knew we had won. Then I found out we had the record. What a feeling.”